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The Acton 4th Of July parade 2008

Walter Zettl Clinic 2004

Riding With Manolo Mendez for the first time

Spritz - down cl

 

This is the story of my 4-day journey into a different sort of dressage on my horse Spritz.  I had never heard of Manolo Mendez until my sister sent me a Glowing report of work she saw him do in a clinic up in her area.  My sister is not easily impressed, and between what she spoke of, and the articles he had written that she directed me to, I realized that this might dovetail well with the work I had begun with Walter Zettl.  I wanted my horses working Up In Heaven, as he says, and since WAZ had to cancel his clinic schedule this year to have surgery, I wanted to train Somewhere, and this looked like a possibility. 

 

I hauled up the day before to give my horse time to recover from a 7-hour trip.  I was lucky not to hit bad traffic, and I got to Petaluma, and Horse Savvy ranch at 6pm.  I was graciously welcomed, got Spritz into his stall, my equipment in the tack room and then promptly buried my truck in the sand when I tried to park my trailer!  EEKS!  I was able to unhitch and get my Truck out, but I had to impose on Cindy, the trainer at Horse Savvy to push my trailer into position with her tractor.  She was very nice about it, and apologized for not warning me.  I should have noticed no tire tracks in that area!  After that excitement, I got Spritz out of the stall for a very light suppling workout.  The arena is a large covered arena, bigger than a standard dressage court.  It was heaven to have such a nice place to work, and NO wind!!!  Here in Lancaster, wind is just a part of life.  Well, our little session told me my horse was a little stiff from the trip, but we worked out most of the kinks and both of us went to bed! 

 

I arrived early the next morning – in a cool fog.  Of course, Everyone had told me that Petaluma was having a record-breaking heat wave – I had packed shorts, tee shirts, and sandals, but NO jacket!  Not even a sweatshirt.  It was ok, so long as I kept moving.  I had a feeling that auditing was going to be a little chilly.  The very first ride was the manager of the host stable – I only got to see a few minutes of her ride.  I hoped to get a handle on Manolo’s accent, but was also determined to be on time for my lesson.  What I did catch of Cindy’s lesson was that her horse Pirate needed to Always have his nose in front of the vertical and that Manolo wanted careful considerate riding – he was reminding Cindy to “get Straight” before turning the corner after working in shoulder in.  Straight was one of those words you heard a Lot, but you also had to learn Manolo’s way of saying it – “Strayette”

 

10 am – and time for my first ride.  My horse, Spritz, is an 18 yr old Appy – but he is well disguised.  He stands 17 hands, and is a solid bay with a long full tail.  Don’t ask me where the Appy genes went – mostly they show up in his very humorous personality.  He has also had some soundness issues (sidebone and a severe tendency to thrush) and had only returned to work 2 months ago, after being lame through the winter, and I was relieved that a little Bute and a night’s rest seemed to have him in good spirits.  In fact, he wanted to spook and play a bit.  However, Spritz is my ex-Rolkur horse.  He can roll up and curl away better than any horse I know.  It does Not take any force to make it happen now that he knows the trick – I know that I taught him to do it (that was the technique my trainer from 15 years ago advocated) and this is one of the big reasons I wanted to ride Spritz with Manolo I sold Spritz 9 years ago, and got him back 2 years ago because he had gone lame and the owners didn't have time or inclination to deal with the chronic thrush.  My desert facility was the right place for him, and I was thrilled to have my old friend back.  But, suddenly I had to look my old mistakes full in the face.  I have worked to ‘bring him up into Heaven’ ala Walter Zettl, but still feel that he is braced and not using his body well.  The Only time I have ever felt a true extended trot was once in the hunt field when we were not allowed to canter due to a herd of cattle that we didn’t want to spook.  Spritz kept catching up with the field master, so we would do collected trot, and then I would let him open up until we caught up again.  Well, after 8-10 of these compressions, suddenly there was a ‘REAL LIVE” extended!  So, I know it is in there, but I don’t know where the key is. 

 

Spritz 4 - candy cane getting better

Manolo let me work pretty much on my own for 5-10 minutes to get a feel of where we were at, and then he directed me through some simple circles and transitions.  He wanted Spritz’s nose Out, and showed me that I could literally flick the rein to encourage the stretch when Spritz tried to curl up. The flick was somewhat similar to what you would do if you were lunging a horse and he started to come in - just gently 'throw' a small loop down the length of the rein.  It was not a punishing motion, just seemed to work to tell the horse 'not down there' and get him reaching towards the bit instead of hiding behind it. I was riding with reins easily 6-8 inches longer than I am accustomed to, and I did have a little trouble controlling a dropped left shoulder making us fall in at canter.  I asked what to do, and Manolo said either circle or ride a slight shoulder in.  But I should Not fix it by lifting up on the inside rein or any other rein action that might shorten the neck.  We spoke a bit about Spritz’ soundness issues, and the quality of his shoeing.  I am Not happy with my farrier, and feel he is letting the angles get too low, and Manolo agreed.  He is also an advocate of barefoot, and trims his horses himself!  He doesn’t like pads, and expressed concern that sand would get up under them and cause irritation.  He also said that Spritz’s sore feet could be the reason he liked to curl his neck – it was a way of taking weight off them – but I tend to think it is more my fault from past training strategies.   We resumed work and did a bit of shoulder in.  To the right we were ok, but to the left, we were getting too much angle.  This led Manolo to stop to explain his very strong feelings about working on 4 tracks.  .  I know I missed some of what Manolo was conveying, as I hadn’t developed a good ear for his accent, but I got enough to realize this was a pet peeve of his.  First he asked – “you train leg yield?” – which is true.  “Leg Yield is Poison for horses”.  Manolo considers shoulder in and Travers “Good Medicine” but thinks LY is biomechanically incorrect for the horse.  He used his omnipresent bamboo poles to represent the horse’s front legs, and he walked through the difference between LY and S.In  - he feels LY “Opens” the horse in his hind legs; it encourages leg movement rather than using the body.  And it teaches the horse an ‘easy out’ so that when you want to do shoulder in, the horse can let his haunches slip out and just LY instead.  This was the problem I was having in the Left Shoulder in.  I was not positioning my shoulders correctly, and since the horse must mirror me, Spritz was slipping into 4 tracks and then over bending his neck.  Manolo explained that the horse’s shoulders, the rider’s shoulders And the horse’s pelvis must all maintain the same angle for harmony.    Now, it didn’t come up in this discussion, but in later rides, I saw that Manolo DOES advocate a

shoulder in on the diagonal.  It is his ‘trade mark’ Candy Cane exercise, and basically, it works like a LY but with body bend

Spritz4 MM showing the way

Spritz went back to the stables calm, supple and pleased with himself.  And I went to sit and watch the rest of the rides.  I saw everything from Manolo riding a young Lutsitano mare, demonstrating the importance of getting a horse forward and confident, before you ever try to pick up a real connection with the bridle, to an impressive in hand session with a rather arrogant Andalusian 4 yr old gelding who was arrogant and pushy to start, and ended up working with Manolo with NO tack on at all.

 

On the second day, I gave Spritz a longer than normal warm up, as I had not had any opportunity to get him turned out, and he is used to being out almost every day.  I worried that he might be getting stiff – although the stabling had large paddocks and his dusty body clearly indicated that he was rolling!  As we warmed up, I focused on getting that long neck with Spritz Reaching for the connection, and not curling.  When we came in to work with Manolo, I felt we were able to begin right where we had left off, no back tracking to redo the previous work. 

 

We started right off with improving the consistency of his connection on the longer rein.  Manolo said that 40% of the time he was too up, 40% he was too deep, and 20% of the time we had it just right.  I needed to be quicker and more consistent in my corrections.  He explained that when the horse works in the exact proper frame, then the blood flow opens up, and you can actually improve horses with ringbone and navicular problems.  It won’t CURE them, but it will help their soundness and stop the deterioration.  I can think of No greater motivator than that.  He also said that many riders have to work with less than perfect horses, and they are our babies, so we need to know how to ride them to their personal best.  We can’t just go buy a better horse; we must make do with what we have.  When we came back to walk, he had me stretch Spritz out even father – we can do it fairly easily in walk.  “That is where he needs to be in trot” he told me.  “Do you want me to try?”  I asked, and with his permission, I rode into trot, carefully trying to stay connected with reins now at the very last mark.  This is about 10 inches longer than I have been riding, and it was very tenuous to keep it.  But watching the video, it is clear that with the topline THAT open, suddenly the body begins to move.  We were even able to canter with this very open and stretched frame.  It was NOT flat, it was Not extremely low – it was just that the top was arched and extended, and suddenly I felt like I needed to buy longer reins.  About half way through the ride Manolo said, “Now, we get off” – and he took Spritz in hand.  He uses the sticks in a couple different modes that I have never seen before.  He actually would reach under the horse’s belly to touch the opposite hind leg, to get the horse to do a walking turn on the forehand Towards the handler – it actually allowed him to turn the horse both directions, having the hind legs crossing.  He also stroked the belly, and got Spritz to visibly lift his back up.  He was actually trying to get the Withers to open, and Spritz didn’t appreciate it. In fact, Manolo said to me “he doesn’t like that much”  He was working him with his tack on, but not holding the reins, and at that point – Spritz just left!  He walked away to the out gate.  Manolo simply followed him, started to get him to reconnect, and then Spritz’s Appaloosa nature raised its head, and he again walked away, and actually put his head over the rails.  He was clearly saying he wanted to Leave the session.  When Manolo walked up to him, Spritz was going to bolt away – Manolo did an excellent job ‘cutting’ off his escape, and then he did manage to get my independent minded horse to come back to work for a moment or two.  He reached his hand out to Spritz in a peaceful gesture, and my boy sort of sighed, OK, and walked back to him.  After seeing all these other horses just melt and really accept Manolo’s leadership, I sort of had to laugh that my Appy was only willing to play the game while it was OK with him – the belly poking just wasn’t acceptable in his spotted mind.  But what I appreciated most was Manolo’s ability to accept that and not Force the issue.  He just got a few strides of go and stop and returned him to me.  It was a good session and helped me confirm the concepts of where was the Just Right place for Spritz to carry himself.  There were ways to go wrong on both sides, and we Needed to find our Goldilocks posture that was Just Right!  I was happy to note that Spritz felt good after working reasonably hard 2 days in a row, and I felt I was not going to need a back up horse.  He was taking an occasional bad step, but I honestly believe if I

can get the shoer to improve his hoof angles, and if we keep doing the work like this, he will stay working sound for many years to come. 

 

Again, I returned to ring side to watch the rest of the riders.  I was getting So frozen, that I was given a much appreciated jacket that was another auditor’s barn coat that lived in her truck.  I later wound up buying a nice Polar fleece jacket with a Petaluma logo of a chicken.  Who knew that Petaluma was the Egg capital of California!  I just appreciated that it was WARM!  There were a couple horses on day two that were put into complete remedial work.  Both had been working in dressage for a while, but their necks were short and their backs hollow.  Manolo explained that in these cases you have to back track and work the horse like a youngster, finding the ideal posture for the horse to open his topline, and then use gentle changes of bend.  He was emphatic that changes of direction Must be ridden carefully, so that as the horse changes the curve in the spine, the discs in-between the bones have time to reform to suit the new formation.  This meant that there was Always to be straight strides between the old bend and the new.  He also wanted the hands to maintain a steady connection and to turn the horse like a wheelbarrow, not pull on one rein and drop the other, but have the hands work as a team.  Manolo really emphasizes the importance of riding a shallow loop serpentine carefully and accurately.  He feels it allows the rider to present suppling changes of bend in a very smooth manner, and that the rider can gradually increase the depth of the loop until eventually the horse does a traditional 20 meter 3 loop serpentine, where the change in bend is accomplished in just a step or two.  One interesting concept that came to light was that canter and trot make the spine articulate in a different manner.  That canter has the vertebrae moving in a longitudinal plane, but in the trot, the bones move laterally.  Knowing this, a rider can rest the horse by shifting between trot and canter frequently.  That way both motions are equally developed, without exhausting the muscles that produce them, nor the ligaments that support the bones. 

Spritz4 - in hand being a good pupil

On day 3, I was very pleased to get to see Manolo ride a more advanced horse – a 10 yr old Lippazann gelding who came to the ring with No Go according to his rider.  Manolo mounted up and began with a series of suppling exercises, including his candy cane shoulder in on the diagonal.  Then he woke the horse up with some bold gallops down the length of the ring.  Finally, he produced some really nice medium trots, with the horse lightly stretching into the connection.  Manolo said that collection needs to be like a sponge, that can be compressed, but when the compression is released, the sponge pushes back out.  This is only possible with a supple horse with relaxed muscles.  Most competition horses are like a rock, Manolo said, a rock has no collection; it cannot be compressed and then allowed to expand again. 

 

My session on the third day Started out with Spritz being a bit braced and above the bit.  This is a by-product of my attempt to “cure” him of his LDR training.  Whenever he went too deep, I brought him up abruptly with both hands – while this has taught him that I don’t like him diving, he still curls, and when he comes up, he is tight on the underside of his neck.  Manolo wanted me to ‘make him a little lower’ – and suggested use of the Inside rein, followed by a release.  When in response, Spritz would get a little too low, Manolo still preferred that to the braced posture.  In watching the video, when he told me our posture was ‘perfect’ the outline was Much more up that most dressage riders would strive for, but at those moments, the shoulders would seem to break loose, and the trot got less ‘stabbing’.  Manolo reminded me that the horse’s neck has 7 vertebras, and we must ensure that they are aligned properly, so that the horse’s body can assume a nice posture.    Spritz also was tending to be a bit quick in his tempo. I was encouraged to do a little less, a little slower.  One point that I have only ever heard from one other trainer was the fact that when the horse is really correct in the neck the underside will be loose, and you

will actually See the trachea area swing and jiggle with the motion of the trot.  It is a good visual cue to verify that the horse is 100% relaxed in the muscles that can pull the base of the neck down. 

 

As the session progressed, we started doing various exercises.  It began with simple transitions; the important aspect of each downward was to keep the nose OUT.  Manolo also wanted to see an ‘organized’ halt.  In fact, he wanted the rider to be organized All the Time.  Now we got to the Anti Leg Yield movement that is becoming Manolo’s trademark.  Labeled the Candy Cane by a participant in a past clinic, it is essentially a Shoulder in on a diagonal line coming out of a half circle.  It was introduced in walk, and then we did the work in trot.  The pattern would begin with a 15-meter right half circle at S and then from the far quarter line, I would spot down the rail to P or F.  It would feel like a leg yield, except you were to maintain the bend in the body.  I really focused on the concept of keeping the hind legs tracking straight on the visualized line of travel, and then bringing the shoulders over.  The angle of the candy cane is important, and starts out very shallow, and can then get gradually steeper.  As work progressed we were still spending about 35% of the time braced, 30% too deep, and only 30% right.  Manolo

called him ‘fidgety’   and said he was trying to avoid the hard work.  We did lots of traditional patterns along with the candy cane.  Shallow loops, 3 loop serpentines, 10-meter circles even riding on the 3/4s line and Centerline to check for straightness. We did Shine the Rain rather frequently (change rein) to keep the work balanced on both reins.  We were significantly better than on the two previous days.  Spritz was more consistent and not falling left and right between his shoulders.    Manolo has a very clear image of what he wants to see, but is forgiving of rider errors.  I rode one Candy Cane wrong – instead of enlarging the circle and sliding over to the opposite rain, I rode shoulder in on a diagonal that brought me back to the rail of origin, which meant that I had to change bend.  As soon as I started, I realized something was wrong.  Manolo simply stated, “you were supposed to wind up at P” but when I said I was sorry, he said “What For”, and we went on as if it hadn’t happened. 

 

 

 

After a nice long walk break – nearly 2 full laps around the ring, our canter work started .  It began a little deep, but his back was Very up and the canter showed a good degree of bound.  He was even playing up a little, and I found myself seeking to be a bit sterner, after having watched Manolo ride the green Lutsitano mare.  The left lead was Much improved, Spritz was Not falling over the inside shoulder.  We even got to ride a shallow loop in canter – beginning a little counter canter, but not too much flexion we were reminded.  Overall, I think Manolo was pleased with our progress even if we weren’t 100 % with finding the right posture; we were able to get there enough to allow work to progress.

Spritz4 - Well done

The final session before lunch was incredible to watch.  It was an in hand session with an older quarter horse gelding who was very tight in his body.    Manolo bluntly declared that this horse had a bad foundation from past training, and that he needed to be treated like a young horse, and it would be necessary to show him how to use his body in a balanced and equally supple manner.  To get this horse to respond to the touches of the bamboo poles, Manolo had to actually lift up the leg to show the horse the right answer.  He felt that in the past this horse had been rather harshly struck with a whip – perhaps to force a piaffe, because the horse’s reaction to the whip was to get Smaller.  He also felt that the horse had been whacked very hard because the horse was afraid to allow Manolo to get 6 feet away, as if the horse knew that from that distance, the handler could really make a round house swing at a horse.  This is one of the reasons Manolo advocates the use of bamboo poles, they are fragile and limit the handler in how hard he can hit.  But while the work with the poles was interesting, and did make the horse travel straighter, it was when Manolo started doing bodywork that the horse transformed before the auditors eyes.  The gallery got startlingly quiet during this work – there was an air of awe and reverence for what we were seeing.  Manolo lifted the horse’s belly, manipulated his neck, massaged his quarters, and basically, like a sculptor working with clay; he reformed the horse’s body.  When he was done, the horse honestly looked 10 years younger!   Sadly, I think Manolo absorbed those 10 years out of the horse, because after this session, he sat down in a chair, looking quite spent.  This man does put everything into his work.  It was lunch break time, but Kate and Pam were not yet back with his food, so I got to sit and talk quietly with Manolo for a few minutes.  I was so sorry I didn’t have any sort of  food to offer to share, but eventually his sandwich came and he powered back up for more work.  Another session of note came after lunch, with a fabulous Dutch Warmblood gelding – listed as Prix St George.  His owner said that the previous trainer had competed quite successfully with the horse, but that he ‘would not piaffe’ so he could not be a grand prix horse.  As he warmed up around the arena, I thought about how impressed I would have been with this horse just 5 years ago.  He took big powerful steps and carried his neck and head in classic competitive frame.  But now I could see the break in the neck

and how Short the neck looked for the rest of the horse’s body.  After observing the rider on her horse, Manolo appeared to ask her about the piaffe – and the attempt they presented fully justified the claim that ‘this horse doesn’t piaffe’. At least, until Manolo got aboard.  He began by really opening up the horse – riding actively forward, and then adding in some suppling movements.  Soon the horse had a completely different look to him.  Even my non-dressage educated mother noticed that the horse’s footfalls on the ground as he passed us were lighter.  Then the real magic took place.  Reaching over his shoulder with the bamboo pole, Manolo touched the horse on the croup, and got 3-4 half steps from the horse.  He immediately rewarded and let the horse move forward.  Then he asked again, and the steps were so noticeably better it was hard to imagine that just 15 minutes earlier, when asked to piaffe, this horse had run backwards and then produced a tense and frantic shuffle. Each effort was more and more on the spot, and showed deeper sitting.  All in a snaffle, and all on a soft rein.  If anyone doubted Manolo’s ability to ride the very top levels of dressage, he dispelled them with this session.  Here is a man who can work equally well with a young green mare, and then develop the most demanding movement of Grand Prix, quietly, efficiently and with incredible compassion for each horse.  I regretted having to leave the clinic a bit early but had promised to spend time with my Mom while I was in the area.  However, I also felt that nothing I could see was going to top the masterful horsemanship display that we had just witnessed. 

 

The final morning was a challenging one.  In an incredible act of over booking myself, I had bought tickets to a concert for my husband and I for Sunday night at 8 pm.  Of course, when I signed up for the clinic, I had forgotten about the Moody Blues, and when I realized they over lapped, I considered canceling the 4th day.  But then I got the bright idea that since Jack has his own plane (don’t Ever think Dressage is an expensive hobby – I could tell you stories!!!)  I could use it to good advantage.  The plan was for Jack to Fly up to Petaluma with a friend of ours, we would meet at Gnoss field, and I would get on the plane and my friend would drive the rig back to Lancaster.  Sounded logical, if somewhat Jet set style.  The monkey wrench was that the weather decided not to cooperate – we had 30 mph winds in Lancaster at 7 am Sunday morning – and they were only going to get worse.  OK, on to Plan B.  I figured that if I left Immediately after my 8 am ride, I could make it back to the ranch in time for us to leave for the concert in Costa Mesa – a 2 ½ hr drive further south!  So, I got to the ranch, and immediately loaded up my truck hitched up my trailer (staying clear of the deep sand!) and basically had everything ready to rock and roll as soon as I untacked.

Spritz4in hand - opening the frame

The riding portion of my lesson was incredibly brief.  After a short warm up, it was as if Manolo put us through our paces, doing a little bit of everything that we had worked on the day before.  Spritz was really getting the hang of where we wanted him to carry himself, and I was staying organized.  Manolo even said he was very satisfied with what we were doing.  “Now, I just want you to canter once on each lead” So we picked up our left lead first.  3 days ago, on the longer connection it had been falling heavily onto the left shoulder, straying off the rail unless I constantly lifted the inside rein.  Now we went down the rail STRAIGHT and then Manolo had us carefully come down to trot, then walk and finally a halt.  We kept our balance, and Spritz kept his nose uncurled and his neck unbraced.  Manolo called it “Perfect”, and you just don’t get to hear that your work was perfect very often!  My reward was that Manolo wanted to spend the rest of the session doing work in Hand.  Normally this is a separate session that you sign up for when you register for the clinic, and it costs a little more – probably because it is SO much work for Manolo – but I was getting the chance to have the work included in a regular session.  After seeing what had transformed with the quarter horse the day before, I was more than happy to see the seratta go on Spritz’ head.  I was rather like a proud mommy as I saw my handsome boy work obediently with Manolo.  He responded to the direction of the whip, turning one way and another, crossing his hind legs, and trying to open his top line and lift his withers.  Then Manolo began the bodywork.  Again, he did the belly lifts that Spritz had objected to on the 2nd day.  Now Spritz was willing to stay and work on doing the exercise.  Manolo also did lots of work on Spritz poll, which he later told me was very stuck on the left side.  When he was done, Manolo told me to talk to Kate, and have her do some additional work on Spritz.  “She works on all my horses” he confided.  I had heard that Kate was an energy worker, although I never asked what tradition she was trained in, but I was honored that Manolo cared enough about my boy

to offer him More care for his stiff older body.  I checked my watch, and felt I had a little time to spare. Kate did some focused work, starting at his hindquarters on the left.  She gradually progressed forward, helping him open that side.  She did ask me when I needed to leave, and I had to honestly answer “Right Now” – She explained that usually she spends an hour and a half on a horse, but she would have to cut it short.   I really regretted that I had to rush off, but I also had a promise to keep. Kate did tell me that I could continue the work just by massaging that tight left side.  “You know your horse, and he trusts you, you will figure it out”.  And on that high note, I sent Spritz up the ramp and away we went.  We JUST made the schedule work – I covered the 415 miles in 6 hrs 20 minutes.  I walked in the back door a sweaty barn girl and 35 minutes later, I was showered and tricked out in a slick black outfit.  We were in our seats for the concert with 5 minutes to spare!  (But I will NEVER try to pull that off again!  Ever!)  But I am SO glad I didn’t cancel the 4th day, or I would have denied Spritz the incredible work from 4 loving hands.  And Jack LOVED the concert – and since he had to be out of town for our first anniversary 2 weeks later, it served as a preanniversary celebration.  All is good. 

 

As an epilogue, I have continued to do the work Manolo opened the door towards.  Spritz is becoming more consistent.  I wish I could claim that he is suddenly 100% sound, but I still offer him a little Bute before difficult sessions.  However, I Will say that in free lunging, he now bucks and plays a bit, and the other day he took a jump just for fun.  So maybe little by little we are opening up the blood flow and repairing some of the damage.  I am also riding all my other horses just a little differently.  We all do the candy cane, and I am now very aware of finding their Goldilocks posture.  I recently had a magical moment with a very stiff OTTB who has struggled to become any semblance of a dressage horse.  He had learned the pose, but has no body movement.  Well, we were cooling out, and suddenly the walk got long and connected, and I knew that was the moment to try.  I gently tickled a trot out of him, keeping the long connection, and there it was!  Just a few strides, but a swingy, dancy trot – from Mr. Jam my Hooves into the ground!  It was just another piece of evidence that opening the topline really is Essential to making a horse into a dance partner.  It isn’t an easy task, to keep the connection on

such a long rein, and the balance is so much more tenuous for the horse as well, but I truly believe it is worth the effort. 

I want to thank Manolo, Kate and the clinic organizer Pam for allowing me to have these insights, and for getting me inspired about my riding and my sport again. I look forward to December, and until then, I will hear Manolo telling me to Get Straight every time I ride. I will do my best. Spritz deserves it.

Spritz - Kate's body work

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